Less Government, Lower Taxes and More Freedom – 2014 Legislative Session Day 1

My first committee meeting of the 2014 Legislative Session is the Local Government Committee where were hearing four bills. House Bill 2114 modifies an existing Public Records Act exemption for customer information held by a public utility to exempt from disclosure customers’ telephone numbers, electronic contact information, and specific utility usage and billing information.

House Bill 1040 authorizes county assessors to combine or separately state land and improvement values on annual real property value notices that inform taxpayers of changes in real property and improvement values.

House Bill 2157 increases the per diem compensation of elected flood control zone district supervisors and requires the Office of Financial Management to adjust for inflation the per diem compensation every five years in accordance to the consumer price index for urban wage earners and clerical workers.

House Bill 2189 modifies rules and requirements for flood control district contracts, including: (1) Authorizing installment payments for contracts for maintenance, similar to other types of district contracts; (2) creating a threshold of $50,000 over which certain contracts may only be let by contract and competitive bidding; and (3) modifying competitive bidding procedures; modifies requirements for performance bonds furnished by recipients of flood control district contracts, such as raising the threshold at which a performance bond for the full amount of the contract price is required to $50,000, and specifying that the bond must be furnished to the district, rather than to the state of Washington; and amends and consolidates provisions relating to the administration and operation of the flood control district board of directors, and specifies that the board must hold meetings in accordance with the Open Public Meetings Act.